Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Rare White-footed Gray Squirrel

Some of you have been following along with my videos of a pair of albino squirrels that were born at work. I have yet to get the two of them on camera at the same time but who knows. Maybe some day. Imagine the excitement for albino squirrel afficianatos (and shut-ins in general.)

Well hold you hats squirrel lovers. This video's coming at you. Put on your 3D glasses. (note: Video is not actually in 3D)

What we have here is some fresh video of an unusual white-footed gray squirrel Sciurus carolinensis. The feet of a gray squirrel are usually gray like the rest of the body so it is curious that this one has such white feet. I did a less than exhaustive google search and could find no record of any white-footed gray squirrels. This is either stunningly rare or of all the billions of people on the internet I am the only person to care about a squirrel with white feet. Interestingly, I believe this squirrel was born in the same litter as the albino squirrels. Albinism is systemic however so the two abnormalities should, in theory, not be related. The white feet are either a natural color variation taken to the extreme or perhaps some sort of underlying leucism.

~Kirk

About the Site:

Kirk Mona is the founder of Twin Cities Naturalist.
He is a professional naturalist and writer.

I have a white footed grey squirrel in my backyard. I discovered it this afternoon and have never seen one before. I Googled it and found your site. Had to get several pictures to show everyone because all four of his feet are white as snow! So cool!